Hello again! Here we are, starting the tournament! And Genshin 4.0 is here! Hahahahahahaha this is starting to become something of a thing. I remember farming in Inazuma when I started this fanfic. I plan to finish before Genshin finished his story, at least xD.
As usual, if you spot an error or a typo, please don't hesitate to tell me!
Anyway, enjoy the chapter!
"There's a lot of people here… Father told me we would face the cream of the crop, but this is amazing. Everyone here looks like to have some interes- powerful magic! Aurora wondered as she could feel all the different types of threads from all the participants gathered.
As expected, all the squads were represented here; Julius told her the one time they managed to see each other during the week to keep her focus on the tournament and her opponents, as the strongest of each had been chosen, and he didn't lie.
For example, the Golden Dawn alone had Yuno, Mimosa, Klaus, herself, and even veteran knights like Alecdora Sanders, the Sand Knight, chosen.
Even her vice-captain, with whom she didn't interact much (or at all), Langris Vaude, was selected.
However, Roland had been selected along with Letoile for a relatively long-term mission, the details they didn't share with her. However, they both sincerely wished her good luck, and after nagging her as usual, Roland accepted her wishes too. If everything goes well, they should be back by the end of the week.
A loud and familiar voice she very much wanted to hear broke her musings.
"You guys totally ditched me last time! Not cool!" Asta told grumpily both Aurora and Yuno, who was by her side.
"It was all Aurora's idea," Yuno admitted truthfully, "and I was all up for it." He added unhelpfully after seeing the girl's amusing betrayed face.
"Why did you do that, Auroraaaaa?!" Asta complained, turning towards her, his face revealing his surprise. "I thought it was all Yuno again! I thought I'd die, you know?!"
"Oh! What happened?!" Aurora asked, amping up her slight concern to distract Asta. Bell and even Noelle, who was with Asta, seemed to catch on to the subterfuge but stayed quiet.
"A lioness was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs! And when she saw me, I realized I was left alone!
"Eh? A lioness…? Who was she, then? Did she attack you?"
"No, but she did kidnap me! Many other people and I ended up climbing some volcano… It was Captain Fuegoleon's big sister, Mereoleona! Until he recovers, she's the acting captain. Do you remember? She was there back at the ceremony last week!"
Yuno and Aurora shared a look. Her premonition turned out to be correct, after all.
"Climbing a volcano?"
"Yeah, it was a grand magic zone or something… Honestly, I think it was more of a training for people lacking control in their magic. Apparently, they couldn't progress without a mana skin."
Aurora startled a bit at that. "Eh? A mana-skin? Isn't it the basis amongst the basis for a Magic Knight? How come…?"
"I managed to finish first, however! If you don't count the captains… And then we took a bath in a hot spring!"
"Wait, what? Seriously?!" Aurora interjected, surprised. A hot springs on top of a volcano?!
"Yep! Comfort after effort! Next time, don't ditch me!" Asta taunted them, feeling oddly vindictive.
"... Aurora and I did eat all the festival food we wanted, you know. We even got to play that duck fishing game you were talking about."
"Wha… That's so unfair! I'm jealous!" And just like that, Yuno took the advantage back.
"These two compete for the most idiotic things, I see…" Noelle summarized their whole relationship, sweatdropping.
"But anyway, Asta, how did you climb that mountain then?" Yuno asked him, curious. "If you needed a mana skin to climb, you should have been screwed." Yuno couldn't know, but Aurora was aware of the new particular skill Asta managed to develop. He probably used it to counter the effect of the zone of his body; however, because of that same zone, it should have been tough for him to control it properly.
"Haha, I will keep that move hidden until our fateful confrontation!"
"How do you know we'll face each other?"
"If it's a selection of skilled Magic Knights, it stands to reason combat ability will be judged." Aurora intervened, thoughtful. "My father told me it would be a tournament of sorts." She admitted, recalling what her father had told her previously.
"Hmmm… It makes sense, but the chosen won't fight alone during the raid, right?" Noelle said, frowning a little.
"A team tournament, then." Yuno finished for her. "Your capacity to coordinate with your allies will be key, too. It makes a lot of sense."
They all look at each other. Some would be on the same team, facing their friends and comrades.
"... You look happy, both of you." Aurora smiled, looking at her two best friends.
"What's there not to be happy? We will face the best the Magic Knights offer and gain our place amongst them!" Asta declared hotly, a broad and determined smile on his face. Yuno nodded, his slight smirk giving off the same vibe.
Then, a guy from the Crimson Lions, a confident Leopold, Mimosa's cousin and Fuegoleon's younger brother, challenged Asta and Yuno, who took his proclamation seriously.
Aurora said hello to the other Black Bulls she saw in the coliseum, namely Luck, Magna, and even Finral, who changed his haircut for the occasion, only to get dissed by all his squadmates, which made her laugh a lot.
All those people gathered slowly descended into chaos until a voice resonated, cutting the hubbub short.
"Thank you for coming, everyone." Her father said, capturing everyone's attention. He barely appeared that all the Knights stopped talking and saluted him, and as usual, he was flanked by the faithful Marx... "Let us begin the selection exam for the Royal Knights!"
His proclamation was followed by a loud shout of approbation from all the contestants. The King himself chooses that opportunity to appear from behind Julius.
"Yuno…"
"? Yeah?"
"Don't you think the King looks like a toad? He's even wearing green and all that." Aurora asked him seriously, peering at the King, who was starting to explain the tournament's nature.
Yuno hid his smile behind his hand. "Thank you, I can't unsee that now." Dark green was supposed to be the Kingdom's color for the reigning family, but it gave their monarch an uncanny resemblance to a fat toad.
"Focus, Aurora." Yuno chided her, as the King explained the tournament would be a team competition, just as Noelle and himself predicted. "You can mock the King and his uselessness later."
The monarch explained the rules: two teams of three would face off in an unknown environment. They had thirty minutes to find and destroy the opponent team's crystal while protecting theirs. If a crystal wasn't demolished by the end of the thirty minutes, the one team doing the most damage to their opponent's crystal would be victorious.
And as if he heard Yuno's comment about him, the King started to fumble in his explanation of why this format was chosen, making it obvious he was just repeating something he was told.
Marx sighed lightly, and Julius coughed to get everyone's attention, saving the King from his predicament.
"In battles against the Eye of the Midnight, several squads will have fight together. This is why we thought this would be the best way to measure your cooperation and strategy skills you'll need at times like that, rather than simply fighting with brute force." Julius explained clearly, but Aurora looked at him with a knowing and excited smile as she caught on the hidden side of her father's decision.
"We'll be able to see a lot of utility and non-combat spells that way!"
"Uwaaa! I can't wait now!" Aurora exclaimed with excitation, clenching her fists.
"And now, let us announce the teams!" Julius announced, and Marx used his communication magic to make a list of names appear on a screen.
All the participants' names were there. There were a lot of names she didn't know.
For example, in Asta's team, there was Mimosa and a certain Xerx Lügner…
"Who is this Xerx Lügner?" She heard Asta ask around.
"My baaad! I'm a little late!" Aurora heard an unapologetic voice from above. As she looked toward the voice, she saw a tall man who jumped down right next to her father.
"I'm sure our great Wizard King will forgive me, though. I was busy helping a grandma, as a good Magic Knight should do!"
"Ehhh? Who's this guy?" Asta shouted in disbelief. Aurora nodded, frowning, as the man's appearance was so outlandish it beggar belief. He wore a series of black leather straps wrapped around his lower face, leaving only openings for his nostrils and mouth and covering his neck. Not only that, but the way the space for his mouth displayed his absurdly sharp teeth gave him a rather monstrous appearance. His pale complexion added to that impression. His crimson hair, however, which naturally went up, completed his looks to give him a roguish appearance.
All in all, from what she could glean from his threads, this man was a trickster… And probably had a massive grudge against the Magic Knights, given the heavy taste of bitterness that lingered around him.
His face as he looked down at them was the epitome of disgust.
And what's more, he didn't feel threatening, at least towards her father… For now."
"I'm… Xerx Lügner. A pleasure."
"Is the grandma fine?" Julius asked him, understanding written across his face.
"She's doing awesome!" Xerx replied with a rictus. As the Magic Knights started taking umbrage with the man, Marx reacted swiftly and attacked him, forcing him to jump down to their levels.
"Hey, that's dangerous… What's the big idea?" He asked, vaguely surprised.
"That's my line! Xerx Lügner is -" He didn't get to finish his sentence as Julius stopped him with a hand gesture and a smile.
Of course, everyone started shouting at him, as he looked even more bored.
Aurora didn't miss, however, Marx's disbelief. He still had trouble thinking Xerx could do that unless…
"Aurora, did you see your team?" Yuno jerked her off her thoughts. With what was happening with Xerx, she even forgot to check her teammates for today.
"No, let's see…" And, as Asta was getting bullied by his new teammate, Aurora checked the list to find hers.
Team I
Nils Ragus
Aurora Novachrono
X
"Oh! Nils Ragus! I know that name!" Aurora said. She turned her head left and right to try and find the Silver Eagle member who led her to their headquarters. He had not been very kind to her, but he didn't outright reject her either, so it was enough in her books.
Now, if he knows what happened between his captain and her…
"And we're with X." A calm voice said behind her. Turning, Aurora saw Nils with a hand under his chin. "I wonder who that is… Anyway, let us do our best." He offered her his hand. Surprised, Aurora didn't think and took it, shaking it.
"Ah…! Yes, let's do that!" She told him a bit awkwardly, surprised by his gesture of goodwill. "And let's try to find X, too!"
"... Who would even participate in such an event without revealing his name? No, to begin with, how could the Wizard King allows that?" Nils grumbled to himself. Meanwhile, Cob Portaport summoned a gate leading to the tournament site, and everyone was urged to go through it.
"Probably because he finds that funny. I mean, he knows who that X person is." Aurora answered him while going through the door.
The scenery awaiting her and the other participants was breathtaking. It was a battlefield, possessing a wide range of different areas. Plains, forest, desert, lake, ruins… From their vantage point, Aurora could even spot some entrances that looked like caves here and there.
"It's so huuuuuuuge!" Asta commented loudly. Julius, who took the same gate as them, chuckled behind him.
"And filled with different areas! You better put them to good use to display all your powers."
"Of course!"
"Now," he turned towards Marx, "here's the tournament chart, determined by lottery in advance!"
Marx used his magic like before, but this time a tournament chart appeared, with each knowing their first opponent.
"Team J, uh… I only know Wainsley-san from the Blue Roses… Dunno about the two others… What about Yuno and Asta?"
Asta was first, facing Team A. Yuno was dead last, facing Team O.
"...! Noelle…" She was in Yuno's team and will face her older brother Solid in the first round. "If he is half as unpleasant as Noelle's older sister, then…"
She glanced at Noelle, who looked fine, but Aurora could feel her fear battling her excitation. "Looks like she's hyping herself up."
"Ah! Remember, you may attack your opponents, but make sure you don't kill anyone, of course!" Her father continued, a bit too excitedly. "We've got a very high-level recovery mage here," Aurora was ashamed to admit she didn't realize Owen-san had been teleported there too, "so go ahead and fight to your heart's content!"
'I'll greet him later." Aurora thought as she went towards Noelle, forgetting about X. Noticing her arrival, Noelle forced a small smile.
"Aurora. Do you need something? Asta's match is going to begin."
"Nop, just checking on you because I just saw your opponent for the first round."
"Ah… Thank you, but I'll be fine. It's up to me and me alone to show Brother Solid I'm neither a weakling nor a failure any longer." Noelle said with such an overwhelming determination that her fear was literally thawing. Aurora couldn't taste it any longer.
"You're really amazing, you know," Aurora told her honestly. "This guy tormented you instead of taking care of you, and yet you're not hesitating at all…"
"I've come to realize that there are much more frightening things in this world besides a bully of a brother," Noelle admitted readily. "Every morning, I used to wake up and be reminded of my place… I thought the wounds he inflicted on my heart would never fade but since then…" She lowered her head, her cheeks getting a rosy hue, "Since then, I've learned otherwise." Her small smile was as beautiful as the feelings pouring from her threads.
"He's really incredible, is it?" She decided to tease Noelle, who responded predictably.
"Wh-Wh-What?! I've never - I never thought Asta was incredible, and I've never thought it daily! It's not like he's the one who keeps complimenting me or anything! I'm not grateful to him or anything! Not one bit!"
"I didn't say I was talking about Asta, though?" Aurora put her index on her chin, looking falsely innocent.
"...!" Noelle's blush was so pronounced Aurora was afraid she would pass out. A little sadistic part of her wanted to keep pushing, but she relented. "Well, speaking of Asta, his match is starting - Oh! Hello, everyone from the Black Bulls!" Aurora waved at the newcomers.
"Aurora-chan! It's been a while! How have you been?" Vanessa greeted her cheerfully. The other members were there to cheer on their squadmates - Vanessa, Charmy, Gordon, Gauche, and Grey.
"I'm good, thanks!"
"La! Hello!" Charmy was as chirpy as ever.
"H-Hello, Aurora-san." Grey managed to greet her. The other two boys nodded toward her, already focused on Asta's incoming performance.
"Do you know his opponents, Aurora-chan?"
"Nop. However, I can tell they are pissed at this Xerx Lügner guy - the guy in Asta's team - he disrespected my father and everyone else earlier."
"I see. I thought you'd be more annoyed by that, too."
"I think this guy has this reason. It's not like he hates my father; rather, I think, for some reason, he hates Knights in general, nobles especially."
"... If that's the case, he'll be a hell of a wildcard." Vanessa summed up. She looked a bit troubled. "I hope Asta will manage to handle him."
"I wouldn't be worried. You should know by now what kind of person Asta is, right?" Aurora looked a the older woman with a smile.
"Right," Vanessa answered with a smile of her own.
Aurora's feelings turned out to be quite right. Asta and Mimosa's opponents were, in fact, remarkably skilled, helped by the fact that one of them was a senior Magic Knight, and his experience made the difference during the first phase of the fight, where Mimosa and Asta were forced to defend, and Xerx fell asleep.
Then, after Mimosa revealed some of her spells, she and Asta led an offensive until their opponents trapped them from all sides. And then, Asta got hit by a paralysis spell, whose mana smelled suspiciously similar to Xerx's.
"Could it be…? That situation is what he wanted…?"
She was tempted to ask Gaius to use his power to ensure it, but she didn't want to reveal what he could do in front of all those people.
Besides, he was sleeping soundly on her head, so it was a big no anyway.
It had been far too close for everyone's comfort. Something incredible happened as the Black Bulls started to sweat bullets as their young ace was on the verge of elimination.
Instead of breaking their crystal, the simultaneous attacks were somehow absorbed by three similar traps to the ones hitting Asta just earlier.
And to Aurora and everyone's surprise, the spells were reflected back to their senders, but with twice the power. The result was obvious: the three mages were destroyed by their own magic, something Xerx seemed to enjoy viciously.
And after taunting his opponents one last time, he destroyed their crystal with a lazy wave, ending the match.
"That was awesome!" Aurora had stars in her eyes. His counterspell was incredible, but she was sure Asta wasn't nearly as hyped as her.
But Aurora didn't really care. She was here to see some magic!
She turned her attention back to the field where the second match was about to start.
"... Who's this flashy guy there?" She was looking at the blond man dressed in pink and white. His threads were overflowing with self-esteem and dripping with a nasty odor of narcissism, but the nature of his mana was strangely similar to Mimosa. And that appearance of his.
She was spectating with Klaus, Yuno, Bell, and Noelle.
"It's Kirsch Vermillion, Mimosa's older brother."
"... Her big brother…?" Aurora muttered to herself. "Well, at least I know now she's not the weirdest in the family…"
"He's… Well, he's a weirdo. And not the good sort." Noelle told them, resigned.
No matter his nature, however, he proved himself to be an incredibly skilled mage and leader; he single-handedly carried his team to victory, and his two teammates, Sol and Magna, seemed to perform even better even though they got caught in some kind of weird atmosphere.
He was definitely worthy of his rank of First Class Senior.
"His magic is awesome!" She told a distraught Mimosa, who joined them during the match. However, his speech at the end and his manners were anything but.
"Please, don't tell him that. Please, Aurora-san. I beg of you." She looked strangely solemn there, but Aurora nodded her consent, given her brother's borderline megalomaniac nature.
Asta and his team were due to a difficult match, given their next opponents' outstanding performance.
A bit later, before the third match started, Nils came to see her.
"Aurora-san, did you manage to find our elusive third member?" He asked politely. Aurora managed to look sheepish: in her excitement at seeing so much incredible magic and so many exciting uses already, she forgot about that.
"You know what? I'm going to ask the responsible." Aurora said, smiling at her teammate before walking towards her father, who was already focused on the soon-to-begin fourth match.
'Ah, crap. Should I greet the King, too? After the ceremony, he'll probably be pissed off. And I don't want to be all respectful with someone like that… And why the hell is Charmy-san sitting on Father's lap? And why does Marx-san doesn't say anything…? Oh! I know! I should just ask him about X!"
"Marx-san!" She waved at him and called him out reasonably from the King and her father.
"Aurora-san?" The three men looked at her, two quizzically, one somehow with anger which quickly faded into apprehension.
"Why is the King afraid of me now…. No, he's afraid of father…" Aurora belatedly thought as she motioned for Marx to come closer.
"What is it?" Marx asked her after he got near her. Her father and the King were already not paying attention and returned to looking at the match.
"Well, we're about to compete, and our third member isn't here. Who's X, and what is he doing?"
"Er, about that… He's on his way; he was finishing something." Marx told her. "We told him to be here on time, but he insisted he wanted to do things his way."
"He tried to be vague, but that was already a big clue." "And I suppose Father didn't see any problem?" She asked him with an amused smile, already knowing the answer.
"Of course, he didn't." He said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"Of course, he didn't!" Aurora repeated giggling. "All right, then I'm going to tell my teammate. Thank you, Marx-san." Aurora bowed, then left to find Nils again.
"Apparently, he'll come a bit later; he was finishing something, apparently."
"That's all?" Nils told her, dumbfounded.
"That's already a lot. Look, Nils-san, plenty of vice-captains are participating, so if this X is finishing something and the Wizard King is allowing it, then it must mean only one thing, you know."
"... You can't mean… Our last teammate is a captain?!"
"That's what it seems. Although, I don't get why a captain would participate here. They are leagues ahead of anyone here." Aurora commented idly. "Unless he felt the need to? We'll see, I guess."
"It's not Captain Nozel, anyway. He was already meant to participate in the raid, and he's got nothing to prove."
"Good for him, I guess?" Aurora answered him nonplussed. Her last meeting with Nozel Silva wasn't her most pleasant memory. "We'll see when X arrives anyway."
She turned her attention back to the third match, where a combination attack between Leopold and Finral sealed the deal for an E-team victory.
Everyone in the Black Bulls congratulated their squadmate. Moreover, everyone was impressed by the Black Bull's overall performance, as every last of their participants was of Junior rank.
The fourth match went by in a flash, as the Vice-captain of the Golden Dawn, Langris Vaude, who was using Fu-Ah as a glorified means of transport, used his own spatial magic to tear through the space of the enemy crystal and cut it into two before the opponent team got a chance to trigger their trap.
That was as awesome as it was dangerous; as wrongly used, Langris could quickly kill a man… or ten.
And apparently, Aurora didn't pay enough attention, as Langris was Finral's younger brother.
"Even though their threads give me the same feel, and they have the same magic, I didn't notice at all… But, something in Langris's feels… Wrong.."
Langris walked closer to Finral and quietly threatened him, but Aurora couldn't make the words. However, she could feel an intense smell of determination coming from Finral…
And the ugly sound of anger coming from Langris, who was smiling dangerously.
"We will now commence round Five! I team versus J team!" the announcer pulled her out of her thoughts.
"I team… Wait, that's me!" Aurora rushed towards her sole teammate.
"Good luck, Auroraaaaa!" She heard Asta shout, and she turned to wave at him. Rejoining Nils, she saluted the opponent team.
"I won't hold back, Wainsley-san!" She cheerfully greeted the girl who cared for her during her stay at the Blue Roses.
"Give us your best shot, Aurora-san!"
"You're only two, though… Where's your third member?" the announcer asked them.
"Good question. Where is he?" Aurora replied.
"That's what I want to know!"
"That's what we want to know too!"
The announcer facepalmed. "All right, all right… Well -"
"Hurry it up, or I might have to disqualify you." King Toad declared in a fed-up tone.
"Oh, that's so unfair!" "Come on, X! Get out there!" Aurora shouted. It seemed to do the trick, as a small man with a recognizable uniform and a weird mask appeared and slid toward Nils and her.
"The Aqua Deer… What the hell are you wearing, Captain Rill?" Aurora chanced. If he was a captain, then there was only one person possible.
"Ah. How did you recognize me, Aurora-san?!" Rill dispelled the mask, which was, in fact, made with his own magic, and revealed himself to everyone.
"Marx-san told me." She said. It wasn't the whole truth, but it was close enough.
"Ahhhh! He ruined the surprise!" Rill shouted, holding his head in mock despair. Around them, whispers were beginning to be heard.
After all, Rill was a captain, and it was natural for people to be surprised that one of them would participate.
"Eh? Does that mean I couldn't ask to participate then?!"
"Of course, you can!" Her father cut the whisperings short. For some reason, He left Charmy asleep on his chair. "There's no need to be afraid, everyone. After all, this is your chance to defeat a captain and make a name for yourselves!" Her father argued, a confident smile on his face.
It seemed to do the trick, as people became even more fired up and more or less forgot the goal of the tournament was to become a member of the Royal Knights and that someone like Rill, a captain, was a shoo-in to be a member without the need actually to participate. It was downright counterintuitive to the goal. No, the truth was more straightforward.
Rill's painting magic was amongst the coolest Aurora got to see. So it was no wonder Julius would want to see it again and used Rill's wish to participate in doing so.
"The Aqua Deer finished last in the previous term, so I'm here to rebuild our reputation! I'm not going to be beaten that easily." He challenged the crowd.
"All right, but don't forget that you're not alone, Captain Rill," Aurora said with a smile. "Let's win this!"
"Yeah! Looking forward to it, Aurora-san!"
"Superb! What enthusiasm! I'm beside myself with joy, young Master Rill!" An old man dressed like a butler appeared from literally nowhere.
"Uwaaah! Where did you come from?!" Aurora asked him, astonished.
"You're Lady Aurora, the daughter of our Wizard King, correct?" Aurora nodded uneasily, and the butler bowed before her. "I ask that you take good care of our Master Rill today. This Walter humbly dares to ask the same thing of all of you, ladies and gentlemen!"
"Wow, he's super dramatic."
"Always so dramatic, gramps! Oh! Asta's there!" Rill turned towards Asta and waved at him. "Let's do our best today, Asta!" Aurora remembered Rill glomping Asta back at the ceremony and let out a small giggle at the memory.
Leave it to Asta to befriend a weirdo like the Aqua Deer Captain.
And for some reason, that greeting was enough for Walter to serve tea to Asta, calling him "Rill's trustworthy friend." and to be moved to tears. Meanwhile, Asta admitted the tea was too classy to taste.
But in all that newfound chaos, one person's patience ran thin.
"Can we begin already?!" The announcer nearly shouted, frustrated.
"Yeah! I'm going to paint the best picture ever!"
"Oh! I wanna see it! I wanna see!" Aurora had stars in her eyes as she followed Rill toward the portal.
Ever the stoic, Nils couldn't help muttering a small prayer to the gods willing to hear him. With this team, they would either soar past everyone else or crash pitifully because it seemed none of these two youngsters cared for the result.
"... You know, it's a team with a captain and the Wizard's King's daughter… Isn't it pretty frightening?"
Yuno wanted to agree with whoever said that, but he had a hunch things wouldn't be as simple.
"I Team: Rill, Aurora, and Nils versus J Team: Wainsley, Roland, and Nix! Begin the match!" The announcer declared.
"Are you going to use your awesome paint magic here, Captain?!" Aurora looked at him starry-eyed. Rill laughed softly. "Hehe, that's the plan! But first, I need to prepare my canvas and my colors!" He explained to an admirative Aurora. "Look, Aurora-san, do you see the sky up there?"
"Ah, no need to be polite with me! Please, call me just by name!"
"Then, then, call me by my name too! Let's be friends!"
"Okay, Rill! Yeah, the sky is pretty blue today!"
"..." Nils looked at the scene dumbfounded.
"Right! Did you know? You can create blue paint by grinding precious stones, like a sapphire. For that wonderful white, I'll use whitewash - it's paint made from seashells."
"Ohhhh! I can't wait!"
"Right! Let's do this, Aurora! And you too, Nils-san! Let us create a masterpiece on the canvas known as the battlefield!" Summoning his grimoire, Rill made a brush and a palette appear from thin air and took off in a magically drawn rug made of paint.
"Let's go, Nils-san!" Aurora summoned her strange grimoire and quickly descended, following Rill.
"... I can't run that fast!" Nils summoned his grimoire and made a trail of ice to try and follow those two idi- his two teammates as fast as he could.
He arrived seconds later at the weirdest scene. Rill had been caught by the enemy trap, a magically summoned plant that constricted him, and he was flailing uselessly in the air while Aurora was watching things unfold, looking at the scene as if it didn't concern her.
"Waaaah! I'm caught! Help meeee!"
"You got this, Rill!" She cheered for him.
"What the hell are they doing?!" Both Nils and the opponent team ended up shouting.
"Is he really a captain…? And why is Aurora doing nothing at all?" Noelle asked no one in particular, looking dumbfoundedly at the scene of the girl cheering on her opponents when they released their magic and the captain about to be eliminated
"Perhaps he has a strategy?" Yuno answered her. "As for Aurora, well, between winning the match and seeing awesome magic firsthand, she probably chose the magic."
"Wait, what?"
"In those moments when Aurora knows her teammates aren't in mortal danger, her priorities can get skewed."
"Yeah, but… This is a tournament, right? Why isn't she showing off like we were asked to?"
"She probably forgot," Yuno answered bluntly.
"And about her opponents, isn't it disrespectful of her to do what she's doing?" Klaus went further as he looked at the girl, pushing up his glasses in mild disappointment.
"That's probably the furthest thing from her mind."
Noelle looked at him in disbelief.
"Yeah, Aurora is kind of weird in moments like those. Well, she's a weirdo, to begin with!" Asta laughed aloud. "Oh, look! Rill's counterattacking!"
Yuno and Noelle turned their attention back to the match. Indeed, Rill used his magic to instantly and expertly counter the spells thrown at him; He countered Nix's flame with water and Wainsley's ice with his own fire.
"That's Master Rill's magic. He can recreate every magical element!" Walter declared behind them with evident pride.
"And his power is superior to those of his opponents…! Aurora must be in heaven right now…" Yuno glanced at the Wizard King, who had a very familiar look of delight.
"A bit like that…"
"Uwaaaaaaah! I've seen his magic before, but this is so awesome!" Aurora looked at the result of Rill's attack; Team J's coordination had been impeccable: trapping the captain with the other Roland's plant magic, reinforcing Nox and Wainsley's spells, and then attacking him while he was defenseless was an excellent plan. However, Rill just crushed it with his imagination and raw power.
"Did you see it too, Ga-chan?" She asked her little friend, who felt weirdly frustrated with her.
"Kyu!" He jumped down her head and bit her left ear, not too gently.
"Aow! What gives, Ga-chan?" Sometimes, when she rambled, he gently hit her head and jumped on her face to bring her back to reality, but biting her ear was a first.
"Kyu! Kyuu!" He was frustrated. She knew why, but this time, Gaius probably felt it was a bit too much, given the place and the time.
"I got it, I got it, the crystal… You're so pushy sometimes." Gaius puffed his torso, and she could feel him taking pride in it. Sighing, Aurora used Tempus Substito to accelerate and quickly localized the last member of their team.
"Oh, hello there." She quickly took his back in a burst of speed and restrained him with a Chrono Stasis. As she saw her bewildered opponent trapped in her sphere of pure time magic, Aurora turned around to try and spot the crystal.
"Kyu!" Gaius activated his magic, and soon enough, Aurora could detect traces of magic that led her straight to the crystal, hidden between two hills.
"Excellent job, Ga-chan!" the little spirit preened with joy as Aurora charged her last spell to end the match.
"Time Annihilation Magic: Tempus Excidio!" The spell impacted the crystal, vaporizing it out of existence.
"The crystal has been destroyed! My team wins!"
She deactivated her spell and released her opponent.
"Welp, that's that. Good match to you!" Aurora bowed shallowly and left him there as she rushed back to try and find Rill. She had unfinished business with him, after all.
"She should be thankful she has a reliable partner… Well, not as reliable as me, for sure!" Bell commented after the announcer declared Aurora's team victory.
"You're right." Yuno nodded, distracted. Indeed, even if Rill could have probably won that match on his own, given the glaring gap in power between him and his opponents, Yuno had the feeling Aurora would not have thought twice about talking him to death about his magic, and he probably would have answered, if he was as whimsical as he appeared earlier.
In short, that could have been wrong very quickly, even if you took their third teammate, who looked quite skilled too.
"She's lucky."
"And what are they doing now? Isn't it supposed to be four-eyes turn now?"
"..." Yuno didn't answer and settled for just looking. It was Klaus's team's turn, but somehow, after being freed by his teammate, Rill started to check out the painting he had created with his spells. And then Aurora appeared at top speed, and it didn't look like they were going anywhere.
"Good luck to their teammate, I guess." Yuno mercilessly summed up his thoughts.
Nils was getting ignored. Supremely ignored. He knew from the moment Captain Boismortier had started to talk, it would be difficult to be heard, but he didn't expect Aurora Novachrono to have somehow the same famous passion as her father.
And now, instead of leaving the battlefield, they were talking animatedly about the piece Rill created with his magic.
"Hum, I could have done a little better there… The cobalt blue stands out here, but it lacks a little oomph. What do you think, Aurora?"
"Err, I don't know much about painting, you know…"
"Ehh, it's fine! In fact, that's even better! Don't try to use big words or sound technical; just say whatever pass through your mind! What does the painting makes you feel?"
"Mmmh then…" Aurora looked at the painting in detail, captivated by the opposing fire and water. "I like it! The blue on one side and the red on another… But it could've been even better if they clashed, like zwoboom!" She made a complicated gesture with their hands to illustrate her sayings. "And just like that, you would have made an awesome purple! I like purple; it's my father's and mine's eye color!"
The innocent reason made Rill smile. "I see… A splash of royal purple… That could be good… Great, in fact! I know! With a forest green, a deep enough shade…"
"Do you have a spell that could make such a great purple?"
"Mmmmhhh… The clash between blue and red… A powerful purple is born… Something that could be both water and fire at the same time… Interesting! The challenge is so simple in nature, yet so interesting!" Rill summoned his brush and palette once more.
"Right! An awesome spell is hard to counter! How about making an animal spewing it? Like a dragon or something!"
"No, it's too simple. We need something with a bit more zwoom!" Rill gestured with his hands as best as he could.
"I see! Zwoom!" Aurora clenched her fists, excited.
"Yeah!" Rill cheered, and after a slight beat, they both burst into giggles.
And Nils was looking on, powerless to stop those two weirdos.
"What in my sacred name are these two doing? Get them out of the battlefield at once!" Looking at the more and more unhinged King, Julius hid a smile.
"Marx-kun." Julius turned towards his aide, who already dreaded the worst. "Could you ask The Black Bulls' Finral for his assistance?"
"Oh! I'm on it." He looked relieved and went on to fetch Finral. A moment later, the latter summoned a portal and entered it, with Asta in toe.
Then, they both went back with Nils in toe. He and Asta had bodily dragged the two troublemakers back; of course, the latter two were complaining loudly.
"Why did you bring me back? I was about to paint a masterpiece! I wanna paint!
"Yeah! What gives?! We were about to create some awesome magic there!"
"Some people don't think before they act, in fact!"
"Yeah, totally! You tell them, Rill!"
"All right, you've made your point, you two," Julius told them, smiling. He had no choice but to come and reason with the two grouchy knights in front of him before the King intervened and made a fool of himself. "But the rule is to leave the battlefield once your match ends. Painting and creating spells must wait until you finish all your matches."
"Whaaaaaat?!" Taken by surprise, Rill couldn't help his exclamation. Aurora put her hand on his shoulder and whispered something unintelligible. Rill nodded furiously.
"Until we're done with all our matches, you say…" Aurora uttered with a thoughtful expression. At least, that was the expression she wanted to give.
"That's right."
"...And then we could have as much as we want…?" Rill continued.
"That's also right."
Rill and Aurora looked at each other and nodded.
"Can we forfeit then?" They both asked him, a large smile on their faces. Nils looked ready to throw himself out of the platform.
"No." Fortunately, the Wizard King had his back.
"But -"
"No."
Grumbling something about "Dictatorship" and "the woe of a creator," they both went back to watching the next match, pouting.
And the performance was all it took to make them forget about their "creator woe," especially Aurora, who was shivering with excitation, stars in her eyes. Julius could understand her because he probably had the same expression.
Klaus, Luck, and Puli Angel pulled off a fantastic win, and the magic they used was amazing. However, it was the match after that definitely raised her spirits.
Noelle destroyed her bully of a brother.
And Yuno gave their senpai, Alecdora, the ass-kicking of his life.
And if his daughter's gaze lingered more than usual on Bell's chosen as she was shouting his name…
Well, that, too, was interesting.
Thank you reading so far!
To my great shame, I chose to follow canon quite closely for this little arc, as otherwise, the next events won't flow as smoothly as I want. So it's definitely not like canon, but I'm still not satisfied. I'll change some things in the outcome of the tournament, however.
Still, if you enjoyed it, then it's all that matters!
See you next chapter, for (hopefully), the tournament's conclusion!
